Sixth Sense
Sixth Sense is an episode from the original series of ThunderCats. Written by Peter Lawrence, it originally aired on October 28, 1985. Official Summary A damaged alien spacecraft makes contact with Cheetara's Sixth Sense. The effort involved in this telepathic communication drains her strength. She ages rapidly. The ThunderCats have to find the crashed spacecraft if they are to save Cheetra - but the Mutants get there first. They are able to understand its strange technology and Monkian attacks it, ripping its Control Center (the element with which Cheetara communicates) from the framework and taking it back to Castle Plun-Darr Lion-O, WilyKat, and WilyKit break into the Castle to rescue it, while Panthro and Tygra repair the framework of the alien craft. At the climax of the fight between Lion-O and the Mutants, the spacecraft itself flies in and drives the Mutants out. It is operating under direct control of the now desperately weak Cheetara. Tygra and Panthro fit the rescued Control Center into the spacecraft and it leaves Third Earth. Official Moral Cheetara's intuition, or Sixth Sense, is focused onto the friendly Delta Spacecraft, which uses her as a means of communicating and seeking help. Though she becomes emotionally drained and even her life is placed in danger, she understands what the Spacecraft is experiencing and vicariously feels and experiences what it is subjected to. She is able to sense what is needed to rescue the craft, even associating with it to the point of functioning as its life-force until its Control Unit is replaced. In persons, empathy is that quality represented by Cheetara's experience in this episode. Empathy includes three components: the ability to discriminate and label affective states in others, the ability to assume the role and perspective of others, and the ability to emotionally feel the affective state of the observed person. It is an important quality because it may be an antecedent for the acquisition and development of pro-social behaviors like generosity, altruism, helping, and cooperation. Since it has been shown to have an inverse relationship with aggression, it is viewed as a means of regulating aggressive behavior, because being able to identify with the painful consequences of an aggressive act can inhibit acting aggressively. In general, empathy is easier for children when the observed person is similar to the observer, e.g., boys are more empathic observing boys and girls observing girls (Feshbach, 1978). Efforts to enhance empathic skills by helping children gain the perspective of others, role-play, be sensitive to affective skills, and be emotionally responsive can be important to children in their personal and moral development. Story A strange alien spaceship which clearly appears to be damaged makes its way towards Third Earth. When the sentient ship enters the planet's atmosphere, it sends out a telepathic distress signal which immediately forms a strong connection with Cheetara's sixth sense. The female ThunderCat who is out in the woods with Lion-O, starts reacting erratically and experiencing convulsions, feeling the pain of the spaceship and even vocalizing its thoughts. Shocked at Cheetara's condition, Lion-O loses no time in calling his friends using the Sword of Omens. Upon seeing the ThunderCats signal, the Mutants, who themselves were tracking the alien ship's signals, send Monkian to secretly find out what the ThunderCats were up to. Upon reaching the location, Monkian learns about the alien ship's connection with Cheetara and how its control over her has sapped all of her strength. The simian rushes back to Castle Plun-Darr and delivers the news to the other Mutants. Utilizing the ship's final transmission signal, Vultureman calculates that it has most likely crashed on Hook Mountain. Wanting to reach the ship before the ThunderCats, the Mutants speed off to the mountain. At Cats Lair, Cheetara's health continues to grow worse by the minute. Just like the Mutants, the ThunderKittens also track the ship's last transmission to Hook Mountain. Deducing that the only way to save Cheetara is to retrieve the alien ship, the adult ThunderCats rush to Hook Mountain in the ThunderTank while WilyKit, WilyKat and Snarf remain behind to tend to Cheetara. The Mutants, who have reached the site of the crashed ship, come under attack from the ship's defense mechanism. Angered at being fired upon, Monkian attempts to smash the craft but is stopped in time by Vultureman. He then rips apart the craft's control unit and the Mutants make off with it back to Castle Plun-Darr. Within moments the ThunderCats arrive at the location and are shocked to see the damaged state of the ship. They conclude correctly that the Mutants beat them to it. The Cats then return to the lair with the ship. As Panthro and Tygra work frantically to repair the ship, Lion-O and the ThunderKittens head to reacquire the ship's control unit from the Mutants. Vultureman, who is desperately trying to decipher how the alien ship's control unit operates inside Castle Plun-Darr, is unaware that Lion-O and the Wily twins have already infiltrated their fortress. They search the castle high and low for the control unit, having some close shaves with the Mutants. During this time, Panthro and Tygra, having finished repairing the alien ship, head to the Mutants' lair to give Lion-O a hand. Cheetara, despite not feeling well, insists on accompanying them. The ThunderCats reach the castle and turn the tables on the Mutants who had surrounded Lion-O and the twins. Utilizing her sixth sense, Cheetara telepathically manoeuvres the alien ship's defense mechanism, making it shoot at the Mutants who promptly retreat in their vehicles. Finally the ThunderCats return to Cats Lair with the control unit and re-attach it to the spaceship. The ship releases its telepathic hold over Cheetara and flies away into space. Characters Vehicles Locations Trivia * When Vultureman first appeared in the episode Lord of the Snows, his voice was provided by Bob McFadden who also voiced him in the three subsequent episodes. However, the producers weren't too happy with his portrayal and felt that it resembled McFadden's Snarf voice too much. Thus Earl Hammond took over the duties of voicing Vultureman from this episode and would continue to do so for the remainder of the series. * This episode utilizes a number of animation sequences from earlier episodes, including: ** Close up of Tygra from The Fireballs of Plun-Darr. ** Close up of Lion-O from The Fireballs of Plun-Darr. ** Close up of WilyKat from The Slaves of Castle Plun-Darr. * As the production of ThunderCats episodes was often outsourced to a number of different animation studios, some differences in the look of the show was inevitable. This is quite apparent in this episode, particularly in Tygra's character design. Goofs * The earlier scenes of the ThunderTank show its front erroneously covered completely. However, this mistake is rectified later during the episode. * When Jackalman has been bound by Lion-O, the black spots on his arm pad are clearly absent. Notable Quotes Media This episode was released on the following media: DVD * Season 1 Volume 1 DVD * Season 1 DVD * Seasons 1 & 2 DVD Episode Screenshots 29 SixthSense1.jpg 29 SixthSense2.jpg 29 SixthSense3.jpg 29 SixthSense4.jpg 29 SixthSense5.jpg 29 SixthSense6.jpg 29 SixthSense7.jpg 29 SixthSense8.jpg 29 SixthSense9.jpg 29 SixthSense10.jpg 29 SixthSense11.jpg 29 SixthSense12.jpg References FESHBACH, N. D. (1978). Studies of empathic behavior in children. In B. A. Maher (Ed.). Progress in Experimental Personality Research (Vol. 8). New York: Academic Press. External Links *Sixth Sense on IMDb *ThunderCats 1985 cartoon series on Wikipedia *ThunderCats on ThunderCats.org Category:Thundercats: 1980s TV episodes Category:ThunderCats episodes written by Peter Lawrence Category:Season 1 (ThunderCats 1980s)